Edpuzzle Social Studies Idea

I have blogged about Edpuzzle before and I am so excited to give it a try in my own classroom! Edpuzzle is awesome if you have not checked it out! It allows you to upload your personally created videos (Educreations, Show Me…) or choose a video from their pool. The videos may be from Khan Academy, You Tube, Ted Talk and so forth. After you upload the video, you can then crop the video, add your own voice and even insert questions for the students as they view the video. (Web-based and an App)  

Here is an idea of how/why you would use Edpuzzle:

Normally, when we assign homework for our 4^th graders in social studies, their homework consists of reading part of the chapter and then responding with 2 concrete details they learned and 2 remaining questions they have after reading. I still enjoy this style of homework as it provides great conversation pieces for the next class period. However, we were ready to give Edpuzzle a try to see if our students’ learning could be taken to the next level. We have noticed that our students have a hard time connecting with what they read out of a textbook because they cannot connect to life in the 1600s, for example. This is where Edpuzzle comes into play!

Assignment: Read 2 sections out of their textbook then view 2 edpuzzle videos that relate to their reading. In this particular circumstance, the students are reading about life in colonial Williamsburg so we found 2 You Tube videos that related to what they read about. As they viewed the videos, we inserted questions along the way. Edpuzzle allows our students to read content and then view the same content to hopefully create visual for what they read and relate better to the information. The fact that you can pause the video and insert questions makes it that much more engaging! Now, I challenge you to go make an Edpuzzle!